English Class

Here are some shining English class students as they learn about feelings.

Update!

Our time here in Jordan is racing ahead now. It seems we just welcomed Mr. Baker (regional minister for the Asian area) for a visit. Yet a month has now passed by. He gave us some great advice during his brief visit that I think is one of our challenges as the time we will be here is now shorter than the time already spent. His advice was something along the lines of "don't forget you're still here. Don't get so busy planning where to go/what to do after Jordan that you forget about the here and now and the impact being made." The timing of these words of wisdom were just right I think. They are so applicable to so many things. In our preparation for the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread we're looking ahead and excited and yet we still have to live in the here and now with our preparation and self-examination.

We had our only snow (so far and we're okay if it stays that way) when Mr. Baker was here for his visit February 4th-7th and joked with him that he must have brought it with him from the States. Although it was no more than an inch in our little neighborhood in Amman, we enjoyed an extra day added on to our weekend. Since Amman is built on 7 hills and they don't have the equipment to manage any stuff that freezes on the ground, any amount of snow can pretty much make the city stand still for the day.

The next weekend (Presidents' Day) after Mr. Baker left, we had the wonderful opportunity of being involved with the Dallas Young Adults' Weekend. We were asked to put together a presentation revolving around the theme of service and leadership and talk about lessons we've learned or are learning here in Jordan this year. We each picked a particular lesson (by no means the only lesson) in the area of service and presented what we've learned and stories from our time here. It was pretty remarkable to be able to interact with a group of God's people so far away in such a direct way. Stephanie kicked it off by talking about redefining service (being a servant not just doing service), then Jamie talked about "service outside the box" how to do a job/find a job when it's not apparent what that is, Kelley talked about the "uniform of service" how to be the servant (as Stephanie had begun in her part), then Eduardo talked about "relationships and service" and I wrapped it up by talking about "perseverance in service." We've become accustomed to delays in audio calls while living here, but for being across the world it was truly amazing the capabilities there are to interact with one another.

We've been continuing on in our respective roles and duties. Teaching lessons, cleaning classrooms, entering inventory, counting books, interviewing NGOs, making dinners for each other, learning Arabic and many many more things, but above all we are still striving to do all of these things to the best of our ability and interacting with everyone else our lives touch in a positive and loving way.

We're very much looking forward to the Spring Holy Days as many are around the world. We get the extra special treat of having quite a few visitors throughout the time. From March 25th - April 11th we will have a total of 11 visitors coming and going. Our little congregation will be more than doubled for Passover and the First Day of Unleavened Bread. Needless to say again, we are very excited. We wish all of you a blessed, meaningful and inspiring Spring Holy Day season!

~Audry~

YMWA Video Tour

Bus ride

At the YMWA we ride an 1.5 hour bus ride to work each morning. We get picked up at 6:23 am.
Here is a little video about how exciting that is...

Guess what!

I had an AMAZING trip back home. Spent almost 3 weeks appreciating my lovely home country.

And….

I’m Engaged! J

Was back to school this week and I guess I brought the Minnesota snow with me because Thursday it snowed! No school/work for any of us.

Mr. Baker is visiting us for a couple days now.

What's going on in Amman.

Here's a brief update about the past week or so here in Amman. Right now Jamie and Kelley are on winter break from their school. Kelley is back in the States until this upcoming Friday visiting with her family and friends there. Jamie stayed here for the first week of the break and then her mom flew over to join her for an adventure through the south part of Jordan and on into Egypt (on the coast and then over to Cairo). I'll let Kelley and Jamie update you on more details as those would be the best versions anyway.

Jamie's mom arrived here in Amman last Friday. Jamie and I had a fun adventure getting to the airport to welcome her and bring her back to our apartment. We decided to try to find the airport shuttle again. We've already done this a couple times in our experience as a group (departing for the Feast and Kelley's departure to go home to MN), but we haven't had much luck but figured we just needed to get our facts completely straight (even though that is not always a sure recipe for success when it comes to traveling here in Jordan). Jamie researched a lot before Friday and everything we read said that the airport shuttle left from the Abdali bus station every half hour. So we caught a taxi after walking to the main road around our apartment here and told the taxi driver "Abdali bus station." He seemed to understand immediately which is always a very encouraging way to begin any journey here (let alone anywhere). So we made the 10-15 min. journey there only to find a fairly empty parking lot with a few buses looking like nobody was going to be going anywhere anytime soon. At that point our taxi driver asked "where are you going?" We replied "we need the airport shuttle." His immediate and full of vigor response was "you need the airport shuttle? that's at the North station not Abdali. These buses are going to Saudi Arabia. I thought you wanted to go to Saudi Arabia and you said Abdali bus station." All we could respond with was "no we're not going to Saudi Arabia and everything we read said the shuttle left from Abdali. This is where we thought we needed to go." Then Jamie says in a quieter voice "well, can you take us to the North station?" So after all this and our apparent attempt to go to Saudi Arabia, we finally arrived at North station (which indeed we've been to before after telling a taxi drive "Abdali bus station" ...I don't know if we'll ever figure all of that out). At the far end of the station was a very clearly marked "airport shuttle" bus which was also a very welcome sign as most of the time things don't seem to be marked that well. As we pulled up, to our bewilderment, the shuttle was just pulling off. We rushed to pay the taxi driver and then talked to a couple men who were with a smaller bus from the same company. They were very helpful (displaying the Jordanian hospitality that is not the least bit uncommon); they called ahead to the big bus that had just left and had it pull over and gave us a ride in the smaller bus to where the big one had pulled over on the side of a busy road. This is when we felt like true Jordanians. If you've ever ridden a bus here, it always seems as if they pull over at random places (on the side of highways too) and pick up people. We finally received our turn to be the random riders. :) We arrived to the airport about 15 minutes before Jamie's mom walked through the arrival gate. We took a regular taxi back to the apartment and only got pulled over once by an official of some sort for some reason that we still don't know.

Last Sabbath was really wonderful having Mrs. Franks here to visit. It's amazing what encouragement and excitement it can be to have even just one visitor. We ended the Sabbath with some wine and light appetizers as we watched the beautiful sunset from our rooftop. We are very spoiled with many beautiful sunsets here and a perfect location to view them.

This Sabbath was a little different as well. It was just Stephanie, Eduardo and I here as Jamie and her mom left on their adventure this past Monday. We've established a sort of routine in how we spend the Sabbath here as a group already but had a little fork thrown in today. It began normally last evening with dinner at our (girls') apartment and wonderful conversation. This morning we had a casual brunch as usual as well. We typically have services in the afternoon starting somewhere between 1-2pm. We decided to begin today at 1:30 and had the pre-downloaded webcast service recorded from the home office chosen to use for services today. Then about 20 minutes before services were going to begin the electricity went out. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal if all laptops had been charged, but as it was the sermon was downloaded on a laptop that only had about 20 minutes worth of battery power and the other one as well only had a little battery power and the third didn't have the program to support however the sermon needed to be played. So we found on the third laptop (the only one that had enough battery power to go for a while) only one message saved on it without using the internet which depends on electricity. We enjoyed singing hymns a capella and listening to the ABC class on Acts 17. It was amazing because the message was very much related and tied in to a conversation we had only last night about meeting people where they are in teaching and sharing the truth with them. Stephanie made the comment about singing the hymns a capella that it helped her to think about the words we were singing that much more which I completely agreed with. Not that we will from now on always sing hymns that way, but I think it was an interesting lesson about how much those words really mean and with how much involvement we should be singing them. Towards the end of the first message, the electricity came back on and so we ended up listening to the sermon we had intended to as well which was also tied into other parts of our conversation last night. It's simply amazing what a little obstacle could not prevent from happening. We were still able to assemble together, sing praise to God and learn about His way.

So it's been a little bit different the past couple Sabbaths, but in a very good way. This upcoming week Stephanie will be traveling to Alexandria, Egypt to attend a conference hosted by the Human Security Center she is working for here in Amman. Jamie will return on Wednesday and Kelley on Friday. It will be wonderful when we're all back together again; I have to say that our (girls') apartment is much too quiet without Jamie and Kelley here. Until the next post I hope everyone out there is doing very well!

~Audry~

Journey through Northern Israel

We returned just over a week ago from a wonderful trip to northern Israel. The five of us had previously visited Jerusalem on a three-day trip, so this time, Audry, Stephanie and I (all on break) headed towards the Mediterranean coast to journey through northern Israel.

Crossing the border didn’t take long at all – just under 2 ½ hrs. – one never knows how long this process will take. It actually took us almost as long to pick up our rental car in Jerusalem! While waiting for all the paperwork to get filled out, I happened to meet four guys from Mexico. It was nice to hear a little bit about their adventures as they traveled the world together. They had just come from Egypt, and two of them were in India before that.

From there it was on to Tel Aviv. We arrived in time to check out the Carmel Market as the vendors began to wrap up the afternoon in preparation for Shabbat. We had read that this was

the best time to get good deals and indeed it was. It then got a little crazy and we grabbed some falafel sandwiches and head to the beach to watch the sunset over the the Mediterranean Sea.

As the Sabbath began, we walked through Tel Aviv a bit and then

headed to see the Hoyer family. They live just north of Tel Aviv in Herzylia. We had dinner with them that night and they were very kind to welcome us in their home for the Sabbath.

On Saturday morning we enjoyed a great brunch which included homemade cinnamon rolls, then listened to a sermon. In the afternoon went to Caesarea, along the coast of the Mediterranean

where we enjoyed seeing the ruins of the amazing port that Herod

the Great built there. Then we returned to the Hoyer’s home and enjoyed an evening of great conversations and a fantastic pomegranate dessert wine.

On Sunday we drove up to Haifa, stopping at Mount Carmel where the view of the mountains next to the coast was amazing. We then found Eshkol Tower, located at the top of Mount Carmel, and went up to the 30th floor where we enjoyed an incredible view of the city of Haifa. We continued into

Haifa to the Baha'i Gardens,

and even though we could not get in a tour as they were fully booked, we saw the gardens from the top of the hill and from the bottom (from the German Colony). We enjoyed a walk along the beach in Haifa and then drove up to Nazareth.

In Nazareth, we visited the Church of the Assumption, which is on the presumed grounds where Mary’s house was, and presumably near Joseph’s house. That night we drove to Tiberias where we spent the next two nights. On Monday morning we headed towards

Capernaum and saw the ruins of the city.

Then we went in search of the pomegranate winery (introduced to us by the Hoyers), which did not seem to be too far according to our maps. Well, after an hour and a half and three text messages welcoming us to Lebanon (we did not cross any borders!), we found Rimon Winery! It turns out it was only about 15 minutes away! We did not mind the journey as it took us through the beautiful mountainous area of northern Galilee and even gave us a glimpse of

the snow-capped peak of Mount Hermon. We stopped at the Mount of Beatitudes before heading back to Tiberias.

After Stephanie and Audry enjoyed the natural hot springs, we had a

great dinner enjoying the famous “St. Peter’s fish”. It was great to be in the places where we know Jesus walked, and taught, and performed so many miracles. It is a beautiful, peaceful place along the Sea of Galilee. It is no wonder Jesus spent spent so much time there.

On Tuesday morning we drove down towards Jerusalem through the Jordan valley where we could see all kinds of fruit trees and greenery. It was amazing to drive along the valley because we were able to see with our own eyes what God described in the

Bible as the Promised Land! It was so green and beautiful that it brings those words in the Bible to life with a land that truly flows with milk and honey!

It was an amazing experience to go up on Mount Gilboa and see the Jordan valley, and since it was the beginning of the rainy

season, it was all unbelievably green. That was truly the highlight

of our trip.

That same day we returned to Jerusalem; we returned the rental

car and spent a few hours in the Old City before heading back across the border. It was indeed a great trip and the memories we have of the Promised Land will be with us the rest of our lives.

-Eduardo